Ray LaHood Gets Behind 2 Mile Challenge

On his “Fast Lane” blog this week, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood gave a shout-out to the 2 Mile Challenge, an initiative by the Clif Bar people to encourage people to bike instead of drive. LaHood started by saying that with gas at $4 a gallon, there’s no reason to use a car for the 40 percent of urban trips that are less than two miles, yet 90 percent of the time, that’s what people do.

Many of these trips could easily be taken by public transit, on foot or by bicycle–saving money, helping the environment, and even affording the chance to stay fit all at the same time. At the Department of Transportation, we know these are the kinds of alternatives people are looking for, and we’re working to provide transportation options that don’t require getting into the car.

That’s why I was pleased to hear about a new competition called the 2 Mile Challenge that demonstrates how many car trips could be replaced by bikes.

Each organization got a $15,000 grant from Clif Bar just to participate. (Last year, it was $20,000 but that was all they got unless they won first place – a $25,000 prize.) This year, each team wins. Third place gets $5,000, second place gets $10,000 and first place gets a cool $20,000. Clif Bar will give an additional $20,000 in “mini-grants” to other organizations nominated by participants.

The money is a great boon for these hardworking organizations, and it’ll help them continue their work to encourage clean transportation and clean air.

But the idea that the 2 Mile Challenge is “a competition to see how many car trips we could replace with a bike instead” is a little misleading. I logged the six miles I rode yesterday, but if I hadn’t biked those miles, I would have ridden the bus or the metro. As a non-car-owner, I didn’t replace car trips, I replaced transit trips.

Besides, it’s all on the honor system. I could have logged 20 miles yesterday and no one would have been the wiser. Or I could have forgotten to log them and my team never would have gotten the points. Or I could have innocently misjudged the distance. After logging six miles I worried that maybe it was only five, but now that I look on Google Maps, I see it was actually 7.4.

Recreational rides also count toward the 100,000, and those aren’t replacing anything. Jeff Miller, director of the Alliance for Biking and Walking, said that’s all right. “The challenge is set up partly as an incentive for those who might be doing short car trips to think about using the bike instead,” he said, “ but it’s also just about celebrating bicycling as a mode of transportation.”

Miller suggests participants load the 2 Mile Challenge website as their homepage or onto their toolbar so they remember to log their miles every day. For those just entering now, there’s no need to reach back to May 12 and remember how far you’ve ridden – just start from today, he said.

And if you really are replacing car trips with bike trips, give yourself an extra pat on the back. That’s really what the competition is about, and that’s the mode shift that needs to happen in this country. We shouldn’t be sending young men and women to the Middle East to safeguard access to oil so we can drive to the pharmacy or the mini-golf course two miles down the road.

I was going to sign up, but I don’t have time to read through the monstrous “Terms and Conditions” and “Privacy Policy”.

Anonymous

I think public campaigns like this “2-Mile Challenge” have their part to play, but they can’t replace the two real lynchpins for success: Motivation and Capacity.

What does it take to get someone to leave their car parked and bike the distance instead? Gas prices are a logical argument, but people respond more strongly to emotional stimuli. That’s why Cycle Chic (following the rule that attaching cute girls to anything sells it better) and “everyday hero” stories (like the grandma who escape the Tsunami on her bike) are perhaps more persuasive.

Capacity – it’s a harder sell, even for a motivated person, to take to the roads on their bike without a sense of safety, with dedicated road markings, and good connections to their ultimate desination if the <5 mile leg is too short or too far.

Ray LaHood may never be the best model for skinny jeans and a fixie, but he can do more to get the capacity in place.

Ray LaHood is awesome, a true visionary who actually doesn’t tow the normal Republican line of barely looking a couple years in the future. If Republicans had more people like him, I would start voting Republican! It gives me hope that, with this guy at the helm during this pivotal times, the US has a chance of actually making our cities livable.

I signed up for Gold Team. I ride 7 days a week. But, getting one I realize all you need to do to log is just enter your miles. Basically, honor system. I’ll enter the legitimate number: but I wonder just how honest the final tallies will be?

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

As Congress maneuvers to end the political impasse over the next long-term national transportation bill, lawmakers are going to have to debate an increase in the federal gas tax, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said today. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood (Photo: Getty Images) In his remarks at a Fort Worth transportation meeting, first reported by the […]

This was a big week for bike advocates: They had a pow-wow with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, launched a new coalition, and refined their strategy for the 112th Congress. LaHood blogged about the meeting, encouraging bike advocates to stay engaged in the political process. He assured advocates that they “have a friend in the administration” but […]

Last week in Philadelphia, the Obama Administration unveiled its comprehensive plan to connect 80 percent of Americans by high-speed rail. And it wasn’t long before the proposal attracted critics, like Robert J. Samuelson of the Washington Post. Much of the blowback centers around the argument that rail is too costly at a time when budgets […]

It’s no fireside chat, but Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has been doing a series of video “dialogues” with people who submit questions online. Today’s installment is all about livability: one person asks what USDOT is doing to improve and expand bicycle infrastructure, another expresses excitement about high-speed rail expansion and asks about LaHood’s personal transportation […]

In 2010, DOT Secretary Ray LaHood mounted a table at the National Bike Summit and proclaimed, “I’ve been all over America, and…people want alternatives. They want out of their cars, they want out of congestion, they want to live in… livable communities.” He added, to thunderous applause, “You’ve got a partner in Ray LaHood.” Shortly […]

Conservative columnist George Will’s angry screed against the Obama administration’s transportation policy is worth digging into this morning — not just to bring one’s blood to a healthy boil, but also to provide a window on the lack of coherent opposition to expanding transit options and diminishing auto dependence. George Will (Photo by newsweek.com) Will […]